Party conference season is all about style over substance – we expect rhetoric rather than detail, right? The Tories, just like Labour, have been busy tearing themselves up over Brexit, but they have also been keen to focus on some vote-winning policy areas, and so housing has had a particularly good airing.

The Conservatives were in for a surprise when the prime ministers closed their conference by announcing she was scrapping the cap on councils’ borrowing to build homes. In a speech where she pledged to end austerity she also singled housing out as “the biggest domestic policy challenge of our generation”. She did not say when the cap would be lifted, although the housing department has since indicated it will be “soon” and that the move could mean an additional 10,000 homes a year. So we can assume more details about exactly when and how that can be achieved will emerge in the Budget later this month.

A conference platform is never the place where the finer points of a new policy push are nailed down. By contrast, it is perfect for a bit of housebuilder bashing

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